The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has issued a regulatory policy imposing new direct regulatory obligations on telecoms service providers (TSPs) in Canada, notes the Canadian Tech Law blog.

“Regulation – much like death and taxes – is inevitable and in protecting citizens and industry, ComReg will have to change its game,” writes John Kennedy in Silicon Republic, commenting on Ireland’s regulator.

The UK government has published its latest digital strategy, outlining its plans for stimulating an inclusive digital economy and announcing a planned investment of over £1 billion for accelerating the development of next generation digital infrastructure,...

A Danish consumer watchdog has reported Google to the Danish data protection agency for potentially breaking privacy laws by not capping the amount of time personal data is stored on Google's servers, Reuters reports.

Germany is planning a new law calling for social networks like Facebook to remove slanderous or threatening online postings quickly or face fines, reports Reuters. “This (draft law) sets out binding standards for the way operators of social networks deal with complaints...

FCC chairman Ajit Pai has said that the agency is studying restrictions on media ownership, characterising a number of the rules as “quite antiquated”. In an interview with Variety, Pai said that an easing of such restrictions “is one of the issues that is under consideration”.

Czech political parties have agreed to fast-track a new telecoms bill before elections in October that could reduce mobile phone bills for consumers, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has said, as reported by Reuters.

The Internet Service Providers’ Association (Ispa), a body that represents many of South Africa’s ISPs, has accused communications regulator Icasa of ignoring a policy directive from telecommunications and postal services minister Siyabonga Cwele over competition in broadband, reports TechCentral.

The Indian government has announced that it is fast-tracking a policy on the usage of high frequency spectrum bands to ensure that the regulations are in place in time for the nation’s operators to use the airwaves for 5G technology, writes TeleGeography.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has announced that the European Commission’s proposal for a directive on certain aspects concerning contracts for the supply of digital content opens up an opportunity for stronger consumer and data protection.

A new World Bank regional report, ‘Reaping digital dividends’ argues that digital dividends have the potential to be the driving force of poverty reduction and shared prosperity in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region.

Sébastien Soriano, head of French regulator, Arcep, and current of the European regulators body, BEREC, took time at the recent Mobile World Congress to express BEREC’s views on the ongoing review of the regulatory framework and to share BEREC’s commitment to facilitate the implementation of European digital policy,...

The European Parliament has approved plans for coordination of the 700 MHz band for wireless broadband services across the EU by 2020, notes Mobile World Live. The vote covers the use of the UHF (470MHz to 790MHz) band across the economic bloc...

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is seeking views from stakeholders on identifying obstacles in the current regulations hindering mergers and acquisitions in the telecoms sector, along with those complicating allotment, sharing and trading of airwaves, reports the Economic Times.

The UK science and technology committee in the Lords has issued a report on connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV). It says the government is too focused on highly-automated private road vehicles (“driverless cars”),...